We're thrilled to announce that The Roads Untraveled, Scarlet Hollow's next major update, will be releasing on March 3rd for PC, Mac and Linux. The goal of this update is to serve as a soft relaunch of the game, complete with large expansions to the first two episodes and an overhaul to aspects of the game's visual and technical design to reflect the skills we've gained over the years.
Overall, these improvements are centered around:
- Improved player agency in the first two episodes of the game. Over 70,000 words of new story content in Episodes 1 and 2 to explore previously unseen paths. What happens if you don't venture into the woods in Episode 1? What happens if you do your best to stay out of any and all danger at the start of Episode 2?
A small teaser of what's being added, including new content and a re-draw of some older assets.
- A user interface and visual overhaul. We've also been working hard to update Scarlet Hollow's use interface and visual presentation to be closer to our current quality standards. There's more on that in our previous update, but a small preview is included below for those who missed it:
The new textbox is bigger, wider, and its colors and shapes blend more fluidly into the background.
We've tightened other parts of the UI as well.
While the narrative focus of the update is on Episodes 1 and 2, Episodes 3 and 4 will be getting small updates to make sure the new paths available in the first two chapters are fully massaged into the narrative. We're also still working on restoring a cut ending to Episode 4, which will hopefully be finished in time for March 3rd.
We really appreciate your patience while we've been getting all of our ducks in a row. Not only will the first two chapters feel more dynamic once this update is out, but the new and expanded content will better position us to make Episode 5 hit just the way we'd like it to.
All the best, and to all of our cousins, new and old, we look forward to welcoming you home in a few weeks.
Tony and Abby